Willow WTL55B Tall Larder Fridge

Is the Willow WTL55B Tall Larder Fridge worth buying?

The Willow WTL55B Tall Larder Fridge is worth buying at £237.49 if you want 241 litres of fresh food behind a black front and frozen food already has a home elsewhere in the kitchen. It suits a family or a shared house with a second freezer, and 42 owners have rated it 4.4 out of 5 so far. Nothing inside it freezes, so every one of the 241 litres works for fresh food, drinks and the weekly shop.

The cabinet stands 144 cm tall and 54 cm wide, narrow enough for a gap at the end of a worktop run, and the mark-proof black exterior wipes clean instead of holding fingerprints. What you accept in return is manual defrosting and 130 kWh a year on the meter. Buy it for the colour and the layout, not for the lowest running figures.

How much does the Willow WTL55B Tall Larder Fridge cost per litre?

Divide £237.49 by 241 litres and the Willow WTL55B Tall Larder Fridge costs about £0.99 per litre of fresh food space, just under a pound for every litre on the shelf. That is the figure to hold next to the price tag, because a bigger cabinet is not automatically better value. A 362-litre larder fridge at £399.99 comes out at £1.10 per litre, so the larger body is dearer space, while a 230-litre model at £199.99 drops to £0.87.

The Willow WTL55B Tall Larder Fridge spreads 8.48 cubic feet across six sections: three toughened glass shelves, a crisper drawer for fruit and vegetables, and three door shelves for bottles and jars. It weighs 39.5 kg, so two people should carry it in and level it before it goes anywhere near a plug.

What size is the Willow WTL55B Tall Larder Fridge and what comes with it?

The Willow WTL55B Tall Larder Fridge measures 55 cm deep, 54 cm wide and 144 cm tall, and it runs on a corded electric supply with a Type G plug, so a standard 13-amp socket is all it needs. The door is reversible and the handle is recessed, which means the hinge can hang on either side without a handle jutting into a walkway. At 39.5 kg it is a two-person lift up stairs, and levelling it properly keeps the compressor quiet.

The Willow WTL55B Tall Larder Fridge has no freezer compartment and no ice box, so frozen peas, chips and ice cubes need a fridge freezer or a chest freezer elsewhere. Inside, the three toughened glass shelves lift out for washing, the finish is mark-proof, and a two-year manufacturer's warranty covers the cabinet and the compressor. Nothing else has to be bought to run it.

What are the downsides of the Willow WTL55B Tall Larder Fridge?

The Willow WTL55B Tall Larder Fridge draws 130 kWh a year, the highest running figure among the larder fridges it competes with, and that cost shows up on the meter rather than on the shelf. Defrosting is manual, so the back wall needs clearing by hand once ice thickens. Neither point is a fault; both are things worth knowing before the delivery van arrives.

Three glass shelves carry the whole 241 litres, so a tall pot or a large bottle needs a shelf taken out rather than shifted down a notch. The owner base is small too: 42 people have rated it 4.4, where the models it competes with have ratings in the hundreds. If you want a long record of owners behind the buy, this is not the one for that.

How does the Willow WTL55B Tall Larder Fridge compare with other larder fridges?

The Fridgemaster MTL55242E costs £229, which is £8.49 less than the Willow WTL55B Tall Larder Fridge, and it carries 242 litres in white with four glass shelves. It also has 221 owners behind it against 42 for the Willow, so its track record is far longer. If colour is not the deciding factor and you want the safest 242-litre buy, the Fridgemaster earns its place.

The COMFEE' 230L is the cheaper route at £199.99, which is £37.50 under this model, and it uses 102 kWh a year against the Willow's 130. You give up a few litres and the mark-proof black finish, and the COMFEE' needs 55 cm of width against the Willow's 54. Buy the COMFEE' when running cost decides it, and the Willow when the cabinet has to be black.